The International Committee Meeting (ICM), the annual general assembly of SCI, where all member organisations decide on the future of the organisation, took place online from 7 to 11 December 2022 with two days off dedicated to workshops.

We had 3 workshops this year:
– Working Together Towards Peace
– Going All In-Coming
– Countering media hype on the war in Ukraine
They were very interesting topics which we hope will continue to be reflected upon.

We had 27 branches registered out of the 34 branches of SCI. Most of the resolutions and one recommendation presented were amended and approved by the assembly, including a recommendation to improve the composition of the SCI board, making it more inclusive and representative, a resolution to work on a campaign on peace activism, and a resolution on an SCI solidarity fund for disadvantaged volunteers. All of these passed resolutions herald a promising future for SCI.

A resolution on volunteering projects in orphanages re-opened long-held discussions on the topic, showing how complex and delicate the issue is, but overall, the debates at this ICM were not very controversial.

Following the recognition by the delegates of the different branches, SCI can count on four official international working groups next year: regional working groups for the European, Asian, African and Mediterranean regions and a new thematic working group on Peace Education and Conflict Transformation in SCI.

Regarding partnership proposals, SCI welcomes two new partners for 2023, the association “New Hope Waves” in Zambia and the association “SURCOD” in Malawi and says goodbye to two Asian contacts from the SCI network: “Youth of Osh” in Kyrgyzstan and “Step Forward” in Vietnam, which are no longer active.

The assembly also approved next year’s international budget, with the structural grant that we were hoping for, and the plan of action.

As every year, ICM organises the Pierre Cérésole Awards ceremony on the last day to reward a project put forward by the branches. This year, two branches presented themselves: SCI Sri Lanka with an overall project in the category of peace and SCI Madrid with 3 projects:

1. Pierre Cérésole Award for gender equality with their project: “Detox your project. Reacting to Toxic Masculinity in Youth & Volunteering Projects”.
2. Pierre Cérésole Award for environment with their project: “ECOSFERA”.
3. Pierre Cérésole Award for migrants and refugees with their project: “PROFES”.

You can also find more information about these projects in this article.

We celebrated three anniversaries this year, CVS Bulgaria celebrated 20 years since its official registration, SCI Malaysia celebrated 50 years and KVT Finland celebrated 75 years, all beautiful branches around the world that have been working for peace within SCI for years.

To close this ICM we said goodbye to our acting President and current acting International Coordinator Hemamali Perera to welcome our new President elect ALEXANDRA VASILEIOU as well as our new Vice President elect SILVIO MARTINELLI and two other members elect ANTONIOS SIFAKIS and FEMI AGANRAN who will compose the new IEC team. Congratulations to all of them and all the best for next year!

Once again, despite a screen separating us, we could feel the pleasure of working together, of exchanging and gathering our strengths, our differences, and our experiences in order to make crucial, common decisions for a better future.

The next December ICM in 2023 is planned to be in person, we are very excited and we look forward to getting back together. However the place is still to be determined…